Tasting potato vodka for new BBC Scotland

IF you live in Scotland, you like me might be a fan of the weekly BBC show Landward. With a Countryfile-style rural format, it is swimming with passion for Scotland, humour and warmth.

So I was delighted to present a three-part special on potatoes in the farms around my Dundee home for the show. Correct. Tatties are not high on my list of expertise, but as a journalist I’m naturally inquisitive and immerse myself in a project with gusto. And it turns out I know a lot of farmers (my school chums now own businesses) as the area is so agriculturally rich.

In a nutshell: Potato vodka (I passed the taste test against a supermarket brand – much smoother and made with love), seed potatoes (not potato seed – we are exporting champions) and potatoes and veg sold in vending machines. A thrill I didn’t expect was the joy of not faffing with clothes and instead pulling on jeans, wellies and a hat to go to work. I loved everything about the experience and a temporary tag as tattie correspondent.